Creative personal development coaching, clearing and planning to help you set goals and live a happy and positive life!

If you are anything like me (and I suspect you might be) you probably go through phases of having many, many ideas for ‘things’ you would like to do. Now, I am not talking leisure pursuits here (although they are good things to do anyway) I am talking about career development or business ideas.

Having lots of ideas is great-it shows that you have energy, dynamism, imagination, creativity and a desire for change, all of which are excellent character traits that will serve you well on your personal development journey. But-what happens when you find yourself in overwhelm or overload mode?

Often, when life is not quite working out the way we would like it to, we become very good at distracting ourselves from whatever the difficulty is. We do this by basically ignoring it, hoping that it will go away, and while we are pushing that particular challenge away we start to focus on something else-something new and exciting that will effectively distract us from the challenge that needs to be dealt with.

This challenge quickly grows a trunk and large ears and becomes the elephant in the room of your progress. It will sit there patiently day in and day out-waiting for you to acknowledge it and deal with it.

Here’s the thing about elephants-they are pretty massive and they can’t be hidden for ever.

The way I work with clients who come to me for personal development coaching is to tackle the clutter first and to do that we have to talk about what that clutter looks like. The clutter is the elephant in the room-whether you label it as a challenge, an issue, a difficulty or a massive pile of steaming crap-it is my friends undeniably clutter that will do a great job of stopping you from moving forward.

Trying to plot a positive path through life, setting goals along the way that will help you to achieve amazing things will NOT work if you do not deal with the clutter first-and all those brilliant ideas and notions that you keep having are just doing their best to divert your attention from what REALLY needs to be dealt with.

So the message today is this-continue to have your amazing ideas and write them down in your journal-then park them. Park them for as long as it takes you to de clutter whatever areas of your life need the most attention.

Here are three areas of your life for you to look at a decide if they need decluttering:

Physical decluttering-your home/office/car/handbag/briefcase-if you are surrounded by stuff you don’t need but are just hanging on to then it will drag you down and black your progress. Take one area at a time and tackle it.

Emotional decluttering-how is your self-belief system? Do you have doubts about your ability to change your life? Write down how you feel about the changes you want to make and identify any negative thoughts-then de clutter those thoughts and move on.

Friendships/relationships/colleagues: Negative people will drag you down-I am not suggesting you actually get rid of people in your life (although some of my clients have decided to end relationships and friendships) that is up to you, but if the people around you are not supporting you then acknowledge that and find people who will.

Having ideas is great-I have lots all the time but I have learned that the only way for me to reach my goals is to always return to de clutter mode first. Once I have clarity and can see a clear pathway forward I can pursue my new idea with vigour-make a plan and reach my goal without having to deal with any elephants blocking my way.

The first step towards personal development work is to declutter-only then can you effectively define your goals and start manifesting positive changes.

I know, I know…you already get LOADS of newsletters each week ping pinging into your inbox-I expect that most of them get deleted and never see the light of day!

That begs the question-WHY on earth I am wasting my time creating yet another newsletter that in our world of digital overload we probably don’t need?

Well-the bottom line my friends is that I am a writer as well as a life coach-that’s why and how I developed the Write Your Life programme in the first place, and surely the best way to spread the news about how writing, journaling and generally getting your creative groove on can help transform your life-is to write about it!

Far from being my side hustle-I have been writing for 30 years-it’s the life coaching that has come along as a result of it and changed my life so it’s only fair that I share all that with the world.

So-to encourage you to sign up and take advantage of some brilliant free tips and advice and secure a very good discount on my new e-course, I promise that my lovely (and it WILL be lovely) newsletter will be:

Short, enticing and exciting

Beautiful to look at

Offer truly fabulous life tips, advice and help for anyone who is stuck

It is well documented that the daily act of writing a diary or journal can have a huge impact on personal development. Although for most of my clients, the prospect of HAVING to write something every day-ideally for 28 days to start with-can be pretty daunting. Yes, I do insist that they do it because I know how powerful a daily habit or ritual of writing can be and once they get into it-they generally love it and if they have a day off from journaling they actually miss it!
So why is writing such an effective tool in our personal development kit?
Here are a few reasons:

It focusses our minds and gives us a chance to write about what we are grateful for, how we feel and what we would like to be, do and have.

It gives our brains a rest from the digitised world we now live in.

It has a great meditative effect-helping us to stay calm, centred and in the moment.

My clients are introduced to my Write Your Life creative personal development coaching in the first session, and are given a lovely notebook to take away and start scribbling in. There is something special about a new notebook-full of possibilities, a place to jot down ideas, scribble illustrations and document how we feel.

Here are a few reasons I use the words CLEAR and WRITE to help my clients move forward:

I have a big problem with shoes-I make no secret of it and my youngest son has a similar problem too. I try very hard to resist but when I spotted these on the feet of a very gorgeous friend the other day I caved and so my ‘new school shoes’ for the autumn term had to be purchased.
The laces say it all AMBITIOUS AND UNSTOPPABLE and are the perfect positive accessory for someone who spends most of their week now giving clients personal development coaching…I am now waiting for a t-shirt to match.
One of the things that I encourage clients to do when they start working with me is to use positive affirmations, reminders or prompts to punctuate their day and remind them of the goals they are working towards.
These can be post it notes strategically placed, notes in a diary, journal or notebook, electronic notes and reminders on their phones or simply by taking time each day to say these affirmations out loud.
I know this can feel a bit awkward at first but you don’t need to do it in public! So my message today (apart from buy some new shoes!) is to spend time setting up some positive reminders that actively promote a positive mindset and help attract the right people, things and actions into your life that will help move you even further towards your goals.

Write YOUR Life is a creative clearing and planning programme that helps you to set achievable and realistic goals that will give you a purposeful, fulfilled, happy and positive life.

In just four high energy and dynamic sessions, you will learn how to…

Declutter-your life, mind, soul and spirit!Decide on new goals and define them-no point in messing about with this stuff-far better just to crack on with it!Take positive and inspired action-this is down to YOU and YOUR new positive attitudeReceive and fine tune the changes that will happen in your life

AND…REPEAT

It takes 28 days to adopt a new habit and the BIG changes that you see will be down to YOU and your willpower and commitment! My role in all of this is to kick you up the arse (I mean that with LOVE and COMPASSION obviously!)and give you all the tools and strategies you need to make significant changes.

Living the dream

So…stop moaning, stop whining, stop procrastinating and START making some BIG changes so that you can truly LIVE THE DREAM!

Oh and by the way I have a 100 percent success rate…and I ONLY work with people who I know are committed to making changes…no excuses and no pressure!

1. Stop focussing on what appears to be going wrong and instead find THREE POSITIVE things to be grateful for.
2. In a notebook WRITE down these three things and what they mean to you
3. Now WRITE down THREE new goals that you would like to work towards
4. Now WRITE down how the THREE POSITIVE things can help you shape your future in a positive way
5. Now WRITE down THREE things that you can do TODAY to help you MOVE THREE steps closer to one of your goals. Repeat for the other two goals.